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One in four young people experiencing homelessness are LGBTQ+, new report finds
Almost one in four homeless young people are from the LGBTQ+ community, a new report by a national youth homelessness charity has found.
The LGBTQ+ Youth Homelessness Report, which was carried out by AKT, examined the discrimination faced by members of the LGBTQ+ community aged between 16 to 25 who have experienced homelessness in the past five years.
It revealed that half of LGBTQ+ young people said they believed that expressing their sexual orientation to their family would lead to their eviction.
According to AKT, less than half (44%) of LGBTQ+ young people were aware of the housing support on offer the last time they were homeless. Around one in four had no awareness of the support available to them.
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One fifth of respondents said that in order to find somewhere to stay while they were homeless, they felt that they had to engage in casual sex.
AKT said this report is the first of its kind to provide evidence of the urgent need to address the issue of LGBTQ+ homelessness. The charity provides support groups, helplines and online support to young members of the LGBTQ+ community currently experiencing homelessness or struggling with their housing situation.
Following the release of the report, the charity is calling on the housing and homelessness sector to make the monitoring of sexual orientation and gender identity a compulsory part of referral forms.
It also recommend that this information be monitored within Homeless Case Level Collection data. AKT is also calling on local authorities to “refresh and review homelessness strategies to determine how effective they have been in supporting LGBTQ+ young people”.
The report highlighted that two-thirds of LGBTQ+ young people would like to see more personalised, face-to-face support from housing and homelessness services. Half of LGBTQ+ young people want to see services adopting more inclusive language.
